블랙넛 ~ 100 (피쳐링 천재노창)

Black Nut, “100 (feat. Genius Nochang)”

The Korean rap scene has been getting a little interesting recently, with the release of several none-too-flattering “diss tracks” like that of E-Sens vs. Amoeba and that one girl who tried to diss Park Bom in a painfully blatant attempt at noise marketing. Well, Black Nut has something to say about this turn of events.

In this highly amusing “diss” track, Black Nut furthers his image as a wimp and funny man while ridiculing the whole concept of diss tracks. Moreover, he does all this while simultaneously delivering slick, slick rhythm and rhyme. I mean, check out the portion where he’s simply listing the names of pretty much everybody in the Korean rap scene, particularly the part from Rimi to Bizzy. Like I said, slick.

I told my mother
When I come back to this house,
It will be after giving a ride to a bus-full of prostitutes
with my spirit fully suckled,
looking like a tuberculosis patient
with a wad of cash in hand
I’ll come back so get ready to move out
I’ll be right back

Fuck off, rappers
I have to pay back my momma’s debts
There’s nothing [lit: no rice bowl] for you
I can lay you guys down
easier than a syringe-wielding nurse

If I’m the head of a beer,
then your money is a spoon, yeah,
quickly skimming me off [1]
But if you scoop me off with skill,
I’ll flip over like a ddakji [2]

[You remember me from when
I struggled on the internet]
But little by little I rose to the surface
Grabbed ahold of Moon Swings’ fat belly
Yeah, I know tha what launched [me/my career]
was not my skill
but that poetic luck

But again there’s nobody now
[who gets the spotlight as much as I do
(even) without official releases]
I’m like the minister of MOGEF [3]
A [pillar/pussy] [4] on the ground here
Applaud me, then I’ll turn over
like I would for a bathhouse pro scrubber [5]

Hey, fuckers
Sorry for swearing
But do you know why the title of this song is “100”?
I told you last year, didn’t I, in “Still Not Over” [7]
I said 100% of Korean rappers can go fuck off back home
That’s not a lie, though
You still don’t get it?
I said one hundred, 100!
Bring it on, all these motherfuckers
Come on, come on, come on
These shitty fuckers
Don’t bring it, I’m sorry
It’s a joke, I apologize [8]

❦Notes:

[1] This is talking about how bartenders serve beer. A good bartender will pour the beer, let the head settle, then top it off before serving. A bad (or busy) bartender will overfill the cup and just scrape off the excess head.

[2] Ddakji is a game played with folded paper pieces. Basically the objective of the game is to get a folded piece of paper to flip over, like Black Nut would flip over in the lyrics. Here is a really well-written description of how to play the game an how to make the ddakji papers (although using the Japanese term “origami” struck me as kind of odd).[3]MOGEF, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. If a song is restricted or banned from broadcast (beyond just one station), MOGEF is usually behind it.[4] There is a play on words here. 대들보 (daedeulbo) means pillar; with this, Black Nut is likening himself to the minister who is the pillar supporting MOGEF. But by pausing between 들 (deul) and 보 (bo), then adding 지 (ji), it sounds like he is saying 보지 (boji) which translates to something like “pussy” or “bitch.” So he’s also calling himself and the minister pussies, yay![5] In Korean bathhouses (NOT jjimjilbangs — they’re different!), you can hire someone to basically hardcore loofah your skin. They start with your back, then you have to flip over so they can get your front side, hence the connection that Black Nut makes to flipping over. If you’re interested in this aspect of Korean culture, here is a fascinating and relatively in-depth article describing Korean bathhouses.[6] Black Nut is dissing Nochang, the very guy who is featured in his song![7] The song “Still Not Over” is Swings’, who Black Nut included in his diss list here. Wanna know who produced “Still Not Over”? Genius Nochang.[8] In contrast to the rest of the song, these last two lines are in highly formal speech.

❦

All official lyrics came from Daum.
All “unofficial” lyrics came from this YouTube video, with some alterations. Currysushi also helped me understand some of the trickier areas to translate. There are some good notes included in the video description, as well.